Websites

Want to get people to do all you desire? Try these resources: "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion," by Robert B. Cialdini (HarperCollins, 2006). "Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive," by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini (Free Press, 2008). workingpsychology.com, website of Kelton Rhoads of USC's Center on Public Diplomacy. http://www.influenceatwork.com , website of consulting company founded by Cialdini. - Chris Woolston 'Weapons of persuasion' from Robert Cialdini Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton are persuasive people -- but why?

DURHAM, Ore. - Oregon officials voted unanimously Friday to jettison the state's disastrous health insurance exchange and instead switch to the federal website, admitting both disappointment and defeat in an arena where the state had been a trailblazer. With its 7-0 vote, the board of directors for Cover Oregon acknowledged that the state exchange was too expensive and too troubled to fix. Although the state has spent an estimated $248 million to get its exchange up and running, it never enrolled a single private insurance customer online.

If you're gearing up to roast coffee at home, here are some of the growing number of websites that sell home roasting equipment and green coffee beans: Seven Bridges , a Santa Cruz cooperative, sells home beer brewing equipment but also offers a selection of organic green coffee beans from Central America, South America, Africa and Asia, as well as roasting equipment. http://www.breworganic.com Burman Coffee Traders sells green coffee beans in 1-, 2-, 5- and some in 50-pound quantities, along with a variety of home roasting equipment.

DURHAM, Ore. - Oregon officials are poised to vote Friday on whether to jettison their troubled health insurance exchange and become the first state in the country to switch to the federal version, which had its own rocky start before righting itself. At a Thursday meeting, Cover Oregon's technology advisory committee announced that it had recommended that the agency scrap its local exchange because there was neither the time nor the money available to fix it. The Cover Oregon board will vote Friday.

SACRAMENTO -- California's state technology infrastructure was the victim of copper theft this week, according to state officials and AT&T. Portions of a one-mile stretch of fiber and copper cable were missing Wednesday, AT&T spokesman Alex Carey said. The cable, strung overhead like a telephone line, runs between the Vacaville and Napa areas. State agencies started noticing problems in the early morning, and at least eight departments lost access to their websites and email, according to the California Department of Technology.

U.S. officials on Wednesday announced a major crackdown on movie piracy that involved seizing several websites that were offering downloads of pirated movies just hours after they appeared in theaters. Officials also seized assets from 15 bank, investment and advertising accounts, and executed residential search warrants in North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Washington. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials worked with the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Here are some of Neil "Bigmista" Strawder's favorite websites: • http://www.bbq-brethren.com "The BBQ Brethren are my online family. This is the greatest repository of BBQ knowledge on the Internet." • http://www.divaqbbq.com "DivaQBBQ is the blog of the top BBQ'er in Canada. She's my BBQ homie." • soulfusionkitchen.blogspot.com Soul fusion kitchen is home for Sylvie Curry, my favorite home cook. • http://www.

The digital revolution has imperiled the future of many job categories, including darkroom film processor, typewriter repairman and telephone operator. With the surge of sophisticated travel websites, can we include travel agents to the list of nearly obsolete jobs? As you might expect, the American Society of Travel Agents doesn't think so. The trade group that represents more than 5,900 travel agents and travel firms rejects the notion that travel websites will eventually put warm-hearted agents out of work.

WASHINGTON -- The National Weather Service's websites for the Eastern part of the U.S. were operating in backup mode Tuesday, offering limited updated information on the remnants of Hurricane Sandy after suffering a systems failure earlier in the day. Disruptions in the websites serving the Eastern region were caused by a cut fiber-optic line, said Sean Potter, a weather service spokesman. "As this issue is being resolved, we are now...

Airlines in the U.S. don't have a very good reputation among travelers. Maybe those ever-multiplying passenger fees and ever-shrinking economy seats play a role in that. But American carriers can at least take solace in the news that travelers are pretty happy with airline websites. An annual customer study -- the American Customer Satisfaction Index -- found that airlines ranked near the bottom among all industries, with a rating of 69 on a scale of 1 to 100. But the same index found that airline websites got a satisfaction rating of 80. In fact, airline websites ranked slightly higher than websites for online travel businesses like Travelocity, Expedia and Priceline, which got a score of 77. The highest-rated websites were for credit unions (86)

BEIJING -- The latest installment of NBC's hit drama “The Blacklist” was deleted Wednesday from all major Chinese video-streaming websites that carry the popular TV show, marking the second time an episode of the program has been pulled from mainland portals after featuring Chinese plot elements. Chinese video websites such as Youku, Tencent and Sohu all carry American TV shows as part of their regular licensed streaming offerings. “The Blacklist” has been among the most-watched shows on such websites recently, attracting millions of views.

The 1,000 most popular websites in the world are now safe from the Heartbleed vulnerability, but 2% of the top 1 million websites remain unsecure, a security firm recently said. Cyber security firm Sucuri Inc. said it scanned the top websites as ranked by Alexa Internet, a company that collects Web traffic data, to test how many of them remain vulnerable to Heartbleed, a bug that was recently discovered. Heartbleed is a hole in OpenSSL, a security software used by most websites, that gives hackers an entryway to steal sensitive user data, including passwords.

The president of the OpenSSL Foundation said the organization needs more support from companies and governments that use its software so that it can be better equipped to spot and fix flawed pieces of code such as the Heartbleed bug. The OpenSSL Foundation handles the finances required to support OpenSSL, a piece of software used by countless websites to secure user data. Recently, researchers discovered a flaw in OpenSSL named the Heartbleed bug, which made it possible for hackers to discreetly steal information from websites for about two years.

Earlier this week, Tumblr sent out a note encouraging users to change the passwords for all of their online accounts immediately due to the discovery of a major bug known as "Heartbleed. " As Times tech reporter Salvador Rodriguez reported , the Heartbleed bug makes it possible for "hackers to retrieve code from websites and other online services that would give them access to other information, including user data and passwords. " Heartbleed affects services that use the widely popular OpenSSL security library, which is used to secure websites using HTTPS encryption.

As Republicans seek to improve their standing among Latinos and women, fresh controversies in California could further damage the party with both groups. On Monday, a GOP gubernatorial candidate's inflammatory rhetoric likening illegal immigration to war came to light. The previous day, a conservative website on California politics was launched, featuring a raunchy photo-shopped image of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - a depiction that prompted the most powerful Republican congressman from California to remove his column from the site.

Following the discovery of a major bug known as "Heartbleed," Tumblr has sent out a note encouraging users to change the passwords for all of their online accounts immediately. The Heartbleed bug makes it possible for hackers to retrieve code from websites and other online services that would give them access to other information, including user data and passwords. The bug affects services that use the widely popular OpenSSL security library. OpenSSL is the technology that secures websites that use HTTPS encryption to keep data protected.

BEIJING -- The latest installment of NBC's hit drama “The Blacklist” was deleted Wednesday from all major Chinese video-streaming websites that carry the popular TV show, marking the second time an episode of the program has been pulled from mainland portals after featuring Chinese plot elements. Chinese video websites such as Youku, Tencent and Sohu all carry American TV shows as part of their regular licensed streaming offerings. “The Blacklist” has been among the most-watched shows on such websites recently, attracting millions of views.

California could become the next state to restrict the publishing of jail booking photos by websites for commercial purposes. State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) on Friday introduced legislation that would outlaw websites that publish mug shots and arrest records and charge money to remove them. The bill would not restrict the distribution of mug shots and arrest records to media outlets and interested individuals. Mug shot publishing websites are part of a growing cottage industry ; the sites make money reminding people of their run-ins with the law. They operate legally, but several lawsuits have been filed in at least three states alleging that the practice of charging people to remove records from the sites is tantamount to extortion.

SACRAMENTO -- The launch of a new political website in California, intended to highlight conservative success stories in the Golden State, quickly ran into trouble on Monday when controversial promotional images cost the organization one of its highest-profile contributors. The images, including a Photoshopped depiction of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) on all fours in a bikini with her tongue hanging out, prompted House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield)

Question: A reader writes that she and her husband are retired, older than 70 and want to travel. They can leave at a moment's notice, so they want to know whether they can take advantage of last-minute deals and, if so, where. (For security reasons, we are not using their names, which are unusual and could make them a target of thieves.) Answer: Travel industry providers have trained us to expect to pay a premium for last-minute travel, except when it's to their benefit, such as moving unsold inventory that will otherwise go unused.